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DENVER (KDVR) — UCHealth hospitals are postponing non-urgent surgeries as the system faces its highest number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients since early January.

“We are closely monitoring the capacity of our hospitals, and to ensure we have available beds and the capabilities to care for any patients who may have an urgent or emergent health care need, we have been proactively postponing some non-urgent and non-emergent surgeries and procedures that would have led to an admission to one of our hospitals,” a UCHealth spokesperson said. “This is helping to open up beds as needed for patients with more urgent health care conditions.”

UCHealth said its number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has more than tripled since early July, reaching the highest number since early January and the second-highest since the first pandemic surge in spring 2020.

This chart shows the number of patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infections in UCHealth’s 12 hospitals from the start of the pandemic in Colorado through Aug. 31, 2021. Source: UCHealth data.

The hospital system said it is caring for “near-record numbers of patients.”

UCHealth said it notifies patients directly when their surgery or procedure is being postponed.

The hospital system urged everyone to get vaccinated against COVID-19 “help prevent cases of COVID-19 and help us get past this current wave of the virus.”